OT: Need Computer Advice Please

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 26 January 06 12:40 am

My home computer is a 1gig intel pushing it's 3rd year. Last weekend I upgraded the RAM to two slices of 256 because it was locking up. Now after the added RAM it is still locking up and becoming more frequent, like four times in 3 hours.

I have run a sector scan and it has no Bad sectors which was the last advice I had been given by the computers supplier. I originally though it was the extra heat we have been getting but it's even locking up at 3am when it is quite cool.

What can it be?

Thanks in advance for any advice posted. I'm willing to purchase whatever magic pill (software / hardware) that will get me reliable again.

Bronze.
Yes I know I'm due for a new unit but I just bought a laptop for work and want to wait another 6 months.

Chwiliwr · Post by **Chwiliwr** » 26 January 06 12:57 am

One thing you need to check is that the RAM is actually OK. Does it pass the BIOS checking when you first start up. Assuming that you can see the BIOS messages. You may have to alter the BIOS setup to do a full POST check on startup if it isn't already that way.

You haven't said what Operating system you are running as depending what it is there may be different things to check once you know the RAM is OK.

Also another thing to check is that the RAM modules actually work together. I had to get my supplier to replace 2 new modules when I first upgraded a couple of years ago as they were from different batches and for some reason didn't work together. It took a long time for them to find 2 that would.

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 26 January 06 2:13 am

Thanks for the reminder. I'm running XP pro with service pack 2

The RAM passes the bios fine. Initially the Ram that was going to go in couldn't because the second stick was the wrong speed. They both match and have checked them myself before paying for the work.

I'm going to have a look around for some registry software and see if I can scan the registry. Since my above post I have scandick and defrag. When I did the defrad analysis is did say it needed defraging so I'm hopin that way the problem. Going on two hours now and hasn't locked up again. Will check the registry anyhow.

Thanks Chwiliwr for the advice. You must be an insomniac also. At least its a peaceful existance.

Bronze.

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 26 January 06 2:40 am

I found two things. The correct term is called a 'hang', my computer hangs.

and this...
http://www.abexo.com/registry-cleaner.htm

Which is a registry cleaner. I don't know if it's fixed the problem because it hasn't hanged itself again but after setting a system restore and running it the ole girl is running a hell of a lot faster - noticably faster!

Lets hope. I'm still happy for any further advice if people have been here done this.

Bronze.

Chwiliwr · Post by **Chwiliwr** » 26 January 06 2:41 am

I'm 3 hours behind you in WA so its before midnight for me.

Something else that can give you those symptoms is when the drive needs a defrag and the history/caches/etc make the drive go over about 75%. The system seems not to like it.

I personally get rid of all the known things like the caches/history and track down all of the temp directories and empty them too before doing a defrag. It seems to work better for longer doing that. XP has a lot of hidden temp stuff that doesn't get cleaned out by the system.

If you are able to do it try putting the system swap on a completely different drive. If you can't do that then drop the system swap to zero before the defrag and then restore it after booting between each change. Defrag will give you a much cleaner drive that way.

As an example the last time I got rid of the temp stuff I reclaimed 25% of my main drive.

If you do need to get a registry program then a recent Australian Personal Computer or PC User mag had a free full version on the CD.

Mr Router · Post by **Mr Router** » 26 January 06 4:04 am

Chwiliwr wrote:I'm 3 hours behind you in WA so its before midnight for me.

Something else that can give you those symptoms is when the drive needs a defrag and the history/caches/etc make the drive go over about 75%. The system seems not to like it.

.

You can clear most of the easy findable temp files through options in control panel, and through systems tools disc cleanup, going further by using the option of clearing all but the most recent backup files (restore points) works for me.

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 26 January 06 12:27 pm

I use this in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on win9X - not sure if applys to XP. It stops the drive geting loaded with junk.

Code: Select all

DELTREE /y c:windowshistory*.* > NUL
DELTREE /y c:windowstempor~1*.* > NUL
DELTREE /y c:windowstemp*.* > NUL
DELTREE /y c:windowscookies*.* > NUL
DELTREE /y c:windowsrecent*.* > NUL
DELTREE /y c:windowsShellIconCache
if exist del c:windowsff*.tmp

Bronze wrote:Yes I know I'm due for a new unit but I just bought a laptop for work and want to wait another 6 months.

I still regulaly use a P1 75Mhz recently upgraded from 32m to 64m ram

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 26 January 06 5:48 pm

Thaks Guys - I'll try some of those suggestions. I'm not savvy enough to know what to do with the code but I have a good mate who most probably does.

I have Registry Mechanic 3.0 from APC but it's on DVD and this unit only has CD drives. Bugger. Don't you hate that.

Bronze.

xf king · Post by **xf king** » 26 January 06 6:31 pm

Being in its third year and fairly old there may a few things cauing this.

1. Hard disk too full if under 500mb free space it may be time to upgrade the hard disk.

2. RAM is not functioning properly. (take out the old stick of ram and run only the new stick and see if it hangs)

3. Video card is on its way out (sounds odd) but it has happened to me.

4. Windows is prone to errors in its hardware drivers and may need a re format.

5. Open up the case and check CPU fan and other cooling fans for dust (as dust overheats the system). Clean as mush dust out as you can by blowing it all out with a blower on a vaccum or a hair drier in cool blow mode... I tend not to use a vaccuum because vaccums create static. Sometimes a small brush or toothbrush may help to get dust out of hard to get to areas. Also check that your CPU fan is running properly.

6. Too much clutter on the hard disk drive and in the start up procedure making the computer lag down slow. Also delte all tempory internet files and cookies.

7. Check system for viruses and adware, spyware and other malicious programs incluyding P2P (Peer to Peer) programs. I use NoAdware and Nortons Antivirus.

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 27 January 06 12:28 am

Do you use it online? If so then spyware or viruses could be the problem.

Visited someone the other day when we were away and their old Pentium is running like a dog, much slower than a 500 MHz should be even to boot up into Win98. Someone had set it to preload shitloads of Lotus and Office stuff they hardly ever use. Plus I cleaned up 500+ spyware things.

Go to these sites:

www.spybot.com
www.lavasoft.de

and install those two spyware checkers. Also get a good anti virus program, there are a few freebies out there.

zigolphin · Post by **zigolphin** » 28 January 06 3:51 pm

i had the same problem with my amd 900 a few months back and nothing i tried worked, so as a last resort i backed up what i wanted and reinstalled windows and now its running better than ever. before i did this though it corrupted some of my files so just be wary of that. when you reinstalll though i found it ok to reformat the drive just in case.

juzmac · Post by **juzmac** » 29 January 06 1:12 pm

xf king wrote:Being in its third year and fairly old there may a few things cauing this.

1. Hard disk too full if under 500mb free space it may be time to upgrade the hard disk.

2. RAM is not functioning properly. (take out the old stick of ram and run only the new stick and see if it hangs)

3. Video card is on its way out (sounds odd) but it has happened to me.

4. Windows is prone to errors in its hardware drivers and may need a re format.

5. Open up the case and check CPU fan and other cooling fans for dust (as dust overheats the system). Clean as mush dust out as you can by blowing it all out with a blower on a vaccum or a hair drier in cool blow mode... I tend not to use a vaccuum because vaccums create static. Sometimes a small brush or toothbrush may help to get dust out of hard to get to areas. Also check that your CPU fan is running properly.

6. Too much clutter on the hard disk drive and in the start up procedure making the computer lag down slow. Also delte all tempory internet files and cookies.

7. Check system for viruses and adware, spyware and other malicious programs incluyding P2P (Peer to Peer) programs. I use NoAdware and Nortons Antivirus.

Agreed

Bronze: Checking the RAM seems to be the best check in reponse to your initial post as you noticed a problem after the RAM was installed (can check by pulling out the new one or old one)...

Now that it is fixed - to get the best performance out of the PC; backup your data (hopefully you do this regularly anyway

) and put a clean install of Windows on the system...

Cheers
Justin